Who is YOUR Teammate of the Year?

Yesterday Tim Duncan was named “Teammate of the Year” for 2014-2015. Spurs fans everywhere stopped what they were doing for 20 seconds and thought, “Well yeah, and the sun also rises in the east. What’s your point?”

We tend to take Duncan and the Spurs for granted. We don’t make a big deal of these things because they don’t. Duncan is a person, and the Spurs are a team, that would rather keep their head down and keep doing what they were doing.

There are people like that where we work too. They are “no frills”, “no flash”, and all about the team’s success. They’re everywhere. We just tend to take them for granted.

We don’t question their leadership because it’s always solid. We don’t have to worry about them coming through because they always do. We nudge hard projects their way, not to take advantage of them, but because we know it’s what they want to do.

All the while, they keep their head down and would rather keep doing what they were doing without all the fuss. This begs the questions:

Who on your team spends all of their time getting the fundamentals right? Who makes the people they work with better? Who does their work well when it matters most, and when it matters least? Who couldn’t care less if you noticed?

Who is overlooked because they don’t seek out the spotlight – more so – because they actively avoid it?

Who isn’t afraid to let others shine brighter than they do? Who champions the successes of others more than they do their own? Who steps aside to let others stars grow?

Who leads by example? Who encourages others to lead? Who partners with you to make your work easier, not because they have to, but because they want the team to be successful?